The Road Less Travelled
by lynn.reist
Summary: Journey with Yuffie and Vincent in a series of 100 drabbles and one-shots ranging from fluffy to angsty. 100 Fic Challenge. Yuffentine.
1. 001 to 005

**100 Fic Challenge.**

_Fandom: FFVII  
_

_Pairing: Vincent/Yuffie_

_Installments: 001-005  
_

My livejournal link is in my profile.

* * *

**001 : Beginnings**

"Listen, I know you just got back from where ever it was you were," she shoves her hair behind her ear and continues to look at the ground, the sight of him still standing before her in her peripheral vision comforting enough, "and I know you probably want to get back to Shelke, but I just thought I'd say that now that everything's finished and we can kind of live our lives and stuff: I'm really glad that I got to spend time with you, and I'm almost kind of sad that it's over."

"Yuffie."

She doesn't look up, because she doesn't know what she wants to find. His voice is expressionless, as usual, but the moment she catches the light in his crimson eyes she knows she's doomed. "Yeah Vinnie?"

"It's not over."

Her eyes flicker up to meet his face, confusion written on her own. The light in his eyes does exactly as she predicted. Her heart leaps into her throat and she can't breathe for the life of her. Oh gawd, how is she going to live without him forever? "What do you mean, Vince? Omega has been sent back to the Lifestream, the planet is at peace. I..."

His human hand lifts and caresses her cheek, and a small, but still recognizable smile curves his lips. "It's not over, Yuffie."

**

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**

**002 : Middles**

His eyes are shut tightly, and his mind is reeling. Over and over again Chaos is reminding him that he is a _horrible, sinful man._

"Vinnie?" Yuffie's voice is gentle, concerned. "Are you okay?"

He takes in a shaky breath and prays she goes away on her own without him having to ask her. As a tremor of a feeling that lay so long dormant it was almost foreign shoots through his body, he wonders helplessly why it had to be today, of all days.

It wasn't like Yuffie didn't wear revealing clothes all the time.

And yet, on this day, Chaos chose to become interested in the toned, flat, abdomen of the ninja-princess, who was strutting around in her usual variation of a midriff-baring tank-top and a pair of unfathomably short shorts.

"Vince, you're freaking me out." He felt the would-be calming feel of the ninja's hands in his hair, stroking the unruly locks, trying to get a response from her tense friend.

"Yuffie," his voice is rough. "Don't stand so close to me."

He can almost feel her stiffen, but she doesn't move. He's sure everyone else in the room has taken a cautious step backwards in fear something had occurred to trigger a response in one of the four demons in his skull.

"Vinnie, what's wrong?" The fingers in his hair tighten a little, and he can feel Chaos rumbling, loving the proximity, and causing a reaction in himself. He vaguely blesses the fact that his cloak hides just about anything. She's moving even closer, drawing his head toward her in an awkward hug. He is sitting and she is standing, and they meet in the middle with Vincent's forehead planted against her rib cage.

The beast inside him, if he wasn't a demon, probably would have passed out in excitement at that very moment. Instead, his conviction becomes stronger.

Vincent trembles, hands suddenly gripping the ninja's hips. "Yuffie!" He tries feebly to make her leave, but contradictory to this; a force inside of him will not let his grip loosen. It doesn't seem to matter, as she doesn't try to escape anyway.

He can't control himself, although he fights it for all he's worth. Defeated, he lets Chaos have his way, trying not to admit his own sense of tingling pleasure as the demon takes over just enough to force the gunman's tongue to very sensuously draw a line from the ninja's navel up to the hem of her shirt; tasting the coveted flesh.

Yuffie's eyes are wide and she becomes very still. "Vinnie?"

He's panting when Chaos retreats again, and he cannot bear to look at her. Sin after sin is added to the list as the demon disappears almost entirely, enough for him to attempt to will away the arousal the situation has caused.

"Vincent?"

He curses himself, and wonders idly why on earth she hasn't run from him now that his fingers have released their tight hold on her. He wants nothing more than to get up and escape the whole ordeal, and yet, feeling her fingers in his hair, still caressing him, he knows he owes her an explanation.

"Chaos..." he began, awkwardly. "It seems he has developed a certain fixation for your exposed skin."

"Oh." She takes a minute to ponder, for once choosing her words carefully. "I'm... sorry, Vinnie."

His eyes snap to her face, and a bittersweet emotion fills him, for despite the little frown that mars her face, he revels in the feel of her hands holding his face, her thumb almost lovingly stroking the side of his face. He felt the guilt rise in him as he was once again reminded that it was not only Chaos who had reacted to her. Ashamed he looks away again. "Do not apologize, Yuffie. It is I who must, for I was weak, I allowed myself..." he scoffs and shakes his head.

An unexpected, yet familiar sound comes from the ninja. Her laughter causes him to look up and he sees the brilliant smile that has taken her face. "You're a man, Vince." He's sure he's gone red and is suddenly thankful that the rest of the group had taken off due to threat. "You can't help that you find my body seexxxxxyy." She wiggles her hips slightly, making him groan inwardly. She giggles, drawing her hands away from him and spinning away. "However, if it's making the beasties roar, I'll find a new way to exert my female prowess." She tosses a wink over her shoulder.

He sighs, sinking deep into his chair. "Thank you, Yuffie."

She laughs again: a manic cackle aimed to the ceiling. "Who would have thought? The harbinger of death is attracted to bare middles?"

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**003 : Ends**

"Just the ends, Vincent, I promise." She's poised in front of him, a pair of scissors wielded threateningly in her hand.

"No, Yuffie."

She sighs, obviously frustrated with his refusal. "But you've got the worst split ends I've ever seen in my entire _life_!"

He blinks, but decides not to take it personally. "I don't trust you."

She roars in annoyance and slams the scissors down on the table beside her. "GAWD! You're such a _wimp_!"

He raises an eyebrow, looks off to the side for a moment and then sighs. "Just the ends."

She grins and swipes up the scissors again. "I promise."

* * *

**004 : Inside**

"Okay, so let me get this straight..."

They're sitting together in Tifa's living room. Vincent is sitting on the floor, one knee propped up with his back supported by the couch that the ninja perches in. His head is tilted back slightly, looking at her as she hovers over him, face twisted in concentration.

"Chaos is gone-zo, but Galian, Gigas and Hellmasker are still here?"

He nods.

"But you have control over them, right?"

He shrugs slightly. "Comparatively speaking, I have more control over them that I did Chaos, yes." He frowns slightly. "But I am still not safe, Yuffie."

She "Pssht"s loudly. "They won't hurt me."

He sighs and tilts his head back down, eyes staring but not seeing the movie on the television. "You don't know that, Yuffie," he says absently.

His eyes shift upward when he feels her chin on top of his head, and her arms circle his neck from behind. "I do know that, Vinnie."

He doesn't need to ask her to explain.

"I'm making myself a nice little home in your head, too, you see. You can't stop thinking about me. Soon I'll be just one of the gang, hanging out inside your skull."

His human hand lifts to hold one of hers, bringing it to his lips and kissing the palm lovingly. He couldn't bear it if she was ever hurt, and yet when he tells her to leave it is half-heartedly and full of reluctance.

When he_ instinctively_ acknowledges her wishes and tilts his head backward to catch her lips in an awkward upside-down kiss, he can't help but wonder if she might be right.

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**005 : Outside**

"Come on, Vince! It's time you learned to enjoy the wonders of the great out-doors!" Yuffie pulled him along reluctantly behind her, her mittened hand grasping his gauntlet tightly.

"Just what do you have in mind, Yuffie?"

In a flash she rounded on him and pushed him backward, hooking her foot behind his knee to ensure he lost his balance. He fell flat on his back with a grunt.

"Snow angels!" she cried, falling backward into the snow beside him.

The gunslinger sighed, closing his eyes and attempting to sit up. He was stopped, however, by a displeased looking ninja, whose finger was stuck into his chest.

"Where do you think you're going?" She questioned, trying to shape her eyebrow into an elegant questioning arch like he could.

He pulled her hand away from his chest. "It is cold, and snowing, and I am getting wet lying here in the snow." When he saw her pout he suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "I don't even _like_ the snow, Yuffie."

She sighed, annoyed. "Just lie down Vincent."

He refused.

"Just lie _down_ already!" she cried, pushing back on his chest and leaning over him, pinning down his shoulders. She looked into surprised crimson eyes and shook her head. "This was so much cooler when I planned it in my head."

He arched an eyebrow, but the situation became much clearer as the ninja lunged at him, trapping his lips in a kiss. He didn't stop her or push her away, but in one swift movement he rolled her over, pressing her back into the snow and letting his tongue ravenously explore the warmth of her mouth.

When he finally pulled back to allow her breath, she gaped at him with wide eyes. "Wha..."

He simply nodded at the ground. "Now you're the one soaked."

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006-010 next week.

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**Author's Note:** Well, thanks to NaNoWriMo and the sequel to Convergence, I've been pretty swamped for the month of Novermber. Here's something to chew on while I sort through finishing Providence and getting it to the state of being postable.


	2. 006 to 010

**100 Fic Challenge.**

_Fandom: FFVII  
_

_Pairing: Vincent/Yuffie_

_Installments: 006-010  
_

My livejournal link is in my profile.

* * *

**006 : Hours**

The shimmering crystal had never before looked so foreboding, but he had never known before that this would be the absolute last time he would ever look up into the downturned face of his symbol of atonement. He had repented his sins, he'd forgiven himself, and he'd learned that loving wasn't a one-time affair. It could be (had been) rekindled, and he no longer found the need of the anchor that kept him firmly rooted to the past.

At least that is what he told himself as he marched into the cave, and what he kept telling himself more than five hours since he arrived there.

"I don't need you."

"_I'm so sorry._"

"I've moved on."

"_So sorry._"

"Damn it, Lucrecia!" The cave was suddenly eerily quiet. He sighed. "She _actually_ loves me."

It was softer, more diluted by the sound of the waterfall crashing outside. "_I'm so sorry_."

It was the fourteenth time he had tried to leave, but this time he made it out into the sunlight, and he took a deep cleansing breath. "It's done," he whispered to himself. He made to head back to camp, back to his friends, when he was alerted to another presence by the sound of boots on the gravelly rocks.

He turned, surprised as red eyes locked with grey. "Yuffie?"

She was stretching her arms above her head and picking up her backpack from where she had been sitting against the rock face, waiting for him to be finished. She didn't demand to know why he was in there, or wonder what took so long; the look on her face was both encouraging and forgiving.

As she walked past him her hand slipped into his, and she gently pulled him along, commenting happily about the weather, and that they should hurry; Tifa will think they were killed by caturars.

* * *

**007 : Days**

She was crying. Planet help him, she was crying and he had no idea how to fix it, let alone what caused it. He could only assume it was his fault, even though he could not reasonably recall having done anything that may have been perceived as offensive. He raked his fingers through his hair as he paced in the kitchen, occasionally glancing through the doorway at the woman curled up on the couch, hugging her knees, staring at the television and _bawling_.

He considered calling Cloud, hoping he would have some idea how to console a crying woman. He doubted, however, that the blonde could possibly help, and made the decision to go in there and ask her what was bothering her.

_'Don't be a coward. You were a Turk, for Leviathan's sake,' _he reasoned, taking a deep breath and heading toward the living room. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Yuffie enter the kitchen, eyes puffy and red, and her cheeks stained with tears.

"Yuffie?" he ventured, unprepared and to be frank, rather frightened.

She wiped at her eyes and smiled weakly at him. "Heya Vinnie." She moved past him to the fridge, flinging open the door and rummaging through it.

His jaw dropped. "Are- are you alright?"

She straightened, pausing, and swallowed heavily before turning and throwing herself into his arms, milk carton still clutched in her hand. "Gawd, Vinnie," she sobbed, face buried in his chest as his arms settled around her trembling form. "You better not leave me or so help me..."

Vincent's eyes widened and he pulled her closer to him. What impression had he given that he would leave her? "Yuffie, I'm sorry," he said, petting her hair. "I'm so sorry, forgive me."

She sniffled. "Why, Vinnie?" She sobbed loudly before he could reply. "Oh gawd, don't leave me. I was watching Days of our Lives and... and... and... these two people, they were in love, but he _DIED_ Vinnie! He was hit by a bus being driven by his step-brother's ex-wife, because she wanted to have an affair with his twin and she thought he was him, but Vinnie, he _DIED!!_"

He blinked. "Days of our Lives? Yuffie, that's not real." He looked down at the top of her head and the very real tears staining his shirt. "That's not even good fiction."

"Yeah but... yeah but... _HE DIED, VINNIE!"_

_

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_

**008 : Weeks**

They were living in the same house, sharing the same bed, eating the same food, breathing the same air, but they had not spoken a word to each other in _weeks_.

It had been so long Vincent had forgotten why they were angry. Pride so far had not let him be the one to end the nonsense; but he missed her. Unfortunately, Yuffie was the most stubborn person he knew, next to himself.

Two weeks turned into three, and he noticed she was spending less and less time at the house. On more than one occasion he had called Cloud to discover Yuffie was at the bar, helping Tifa, or that she was going to be spending the night there. He bristled at the thought of an empty bed and once again chided himself for not just biting the bullet and ending this ridiculous stalemate. It took him one night alone in a cold empty bed for his decision to become final: even if they had not touched and lay stark still next to each other, at least he knew she was there.

"Yeah, she's still here."

"I need a favour, Cloud."

"That's new. What can I do for you?"

"Tell Yuffie she needs to come home."

There was a pause and then a long sigh from the other end. "Fuck you."

Vincent blinked at his PHS. It could be heard through the line.

"I'm not getting in the middle of this. If you guys aren't talking to each other, but you want her back, you better throw your pride aside and talk to her yourself."

He blinked again.

"She has her PHS on her. Call. Her." The extra emphasis made the gunman wince slightly.

"Cloud I..."

"You're stubborn," the younger man said, a hint of sadness in his voice. "I know."

Vincent snorted quietly into the phone. "Is she there now?"

Cloud paused briefly and hesitantly admitted that she was.

Vincent took a breath. "May I speak with her?"

The blond sighed again and there was a moment of shuffling as the PHS was shifted to Yuffie's possession. She brought it to her ear and waited.

Vincent took a breath and closed his eyes. "Yuffie?"

She seemed to exhale in relief. "Vincent?"

His forehead rested on the jamb of the doorway he was standing in, the weight of weeks of silence lifting from his burdened shoulders. "Come home," he whispered.

He heard her sniff on the other end, and her choked voice replied quietly: "Kay."

He paused again. Normally such a conversation would have been more than necessary, but clutching the phone tightly and leaning heavily on the doorframe for support, he added "I miss you."

He could almost hear her smile through the phone line.

* * *

**009 : Months**

She was such a child of summer it hurt sometimes. He'd watch her from the shade as she leapt from trees, rolled in the grass and basked in the sunlight; all the while _genuinely _smiling like her face was permanently fixed that way.

Yes, in the summer months, Yuffie Kisaragi was in her prime, and she shone so bright as to rival the warm July sun.

Yet every crop has its season, and though Yuffie's was summer, July and August were relatively short compared to the long facing months of autumn, winter, and spring.

He would watch from the shade, under the turning leaves, as her smiles waned and her escapades grew shorter along with the days. He could sympathize: although he was more of an autumn person himself (bury yourself, earth; hide under a blanket of leaves and wait for death to take over the Planet) he too was a wanderer, and a wanderer felt trapped when snow and the cold kept them from straying too far from shelter.

The circles of the forest and garden would get smaller as the temperature dropped, as soon she was forced to huddle under his tree beside him, staring up at the rust coloured leaves above them. He didn't say much, replying with one-word answers to her many-word questions.

"So, Cid and Shera are going back to Rocket town after their wedding. Pretty cool, huh?"

He nodded.

"And Barret and Marlene are going to Gongaga for vacation. I heard they're going to be returning to Corel. That right, Vinnie?"

"Yes."

She nodded, looking out over the yard. "Tifa and Cloud are taking Denzel to the Gold Saucer."

"I heard." He glanced over at her while she was looking away, noting the uneasy look on her face and the absence of her summer smiles.

"And you're going back to Nibleheim."

It wasn't a question, simply an observation, so he did not reply.

She leaned back against the tree, her eyes cast downward. At her side, she grasped a handful of leaves and crunched them between her fingers.

"Everything changes," she said.

A gust of wind shook the branches and red and orange leaves cascaded from the tree around them. She closed her eyes as they washed over her.

A gauntleted hand tentatively reached over and pulled a yellow leaf from her hair. "Summer always returns."

For once, she didn't reply, letting the silence and the chaos speak for itself, along with the comforting fact that he hadn't yet left.

* * *

**010 : Years**

Vincent stared, wide eyed at Yuffie's retreating form. Beside him, Tifa materialized as if from thin air.

"She... loves me?" he asked, eyes squinting slightly as her form got smaller the farther she went.

"Always has," Tifa said solemnly, "For _years_ Vincent."

His brow knit. "And does she know..."

"About your feelings for her? No, I haven't told her."

He glanced at her, surprised. "I was not aware that she was in such pain, why didn't you..?"

Tifa gave him a look, reprehending him. "I didn't tell her just like I never told you, Vincent. I'm a friend to you both, and they are secrets that needed to be kept. Only you can tell her how you feel, Vincent. I told Yuffie the same thing."

He stood straighter and took a breath. "Which leaves us where we are now."

Tifa nodded and looked in the same direction that he does: A swinging screen door and a ninja quickly dissolving into a crowd of people on the city streets. "Go get her Vincent. She's yours now."

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_011-015 next week_

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**Author's Note:** Thank you everyone for your kind reviews. I'm really pleased that you are all enjoying this. They're really fun to write: a great break from cramming for finals, that's for sure. Last exam is tonight! Wish me luck!


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